“Bags of America” is a large, handmade, artist’s book containing a suite of twelve drawings of cereal bag liners. Professor Hallberg created it as an extension of a series of smaller drawings of the same subject and in response to John James Audubon’s “Birds of America” and the heft of his double-elephant folio work. Although “Bags of America” shares Audubon’s interest in careful observation, its subject, the detritus of our everyday lives, has a beauty of its own, but will also remind visitors of the impact of the consumer-celebrity culture in which we all participate.

Special Collections & Archives, Z. Smith Reynolds Library is hosting “Bags of America” in the Research Room (Room 625, ZSR) from August 17-September 30. A public reception will be held September 2 from 4-5:30.